


Sepia

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Inquisitor Barriss Offee, Stranded, Temporary Amnesia, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-27 22:08:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17775104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: Ahsoka has a series of problems, and the biggest problem used to be her best friend.





	Sepia

**Author's Note:**

  * For [darlingargents](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingargents/gifts).



The best way to solve an enormous problem is to break it into smaller pieces. Ahsoka was taught this from her childhood, told in various ways by various teachers, while the wisdom stayed the same. She's in a big mess. She needs to break it into a pile of small messes, address those one by one, and as a result, make a clean sweep of the whole.

Her first issue is that she's stuck here on this rocky desert of a world with little water and little food. The thin, brown vegetation clinging to life in the cracks and cusps of hardpack within the shade of boulders suggests there will not be more food or water to be found. This is related to her second problem: her ship is damaged. With parts and time, she may be able to repair it, but her time is limited by how long she can stretch her short supplies.

The third problem is that she isn't alone. An Inquisitor followed her here and blasted her out of the sky before falling to Ahsoka's own desperate blasts. The other ship crashed not even a tenth of a kilometer from her own wreck.

The fourth problem is why this is all a mess. The Inquisitor isn't a stranger. Ahsoka hasn't seen her eyes yet, doesn't know if Barriss has lost herself to the yellow hatred of a Sith. She's badly injured, which is another problem, maybe the biggest problem, or maybe it will be the horrible, sad solution to the rest of Ahsoka's problems. There's food on the Inquisitor's ship, and Ahsoka thinks she might be able to strip it for the parts she needs. She refuses to think about the rest.

There. Five smaller problems add up to one turmoil in Ahsoka's mind as she sits beside Barriss, absently checking her pulse, her respiration, and the worrisome knot where she struck her head in the crash. She knows little about Mirialan physiology, only what she picked up back when they were friends, chatting in casual camaraderie, and when they were more than friends, learning the introductory lessons of young heartbreak. Ahsoka has seen her resplendently disrobed. She has no idea what her heart rate should be, or what temperature indicates a fever, or what the signs are of organ failure.

Afraid and unsure, she drips some of her precious water past parted lips, too little to choke. Barriss stays unconscious.

"I have to get us out of here," Ahsoka tells her. She has to fix her second problem or the other problems will become meaningless. She leaves Barriss and examines both ships. A small measure of hope forms inside her. If she takes pieces from her own ship, she can repair the Inquisitor's craft easily. That puts her in a precarious place, but it's a precarious place with a working hyperdrive and a cockpit that will fit two.

Hours into the repair, she returns to check on her former friend, attempted murderer, and current prisoner. Barriss is awake, barely. She blinks with dull awareness in the dimming light.

Instantly, Ahsoka goes on her guard, hands ready at her lightsabers, begging the Force or anything else listening that she doesn't have to use them. Barriss's eyes are clear, she sees. Not a Sith, but not necessarily safe.

"What's going on?" Barriss asks, shaking her head, then making a face as though she's deeply nauseated.

"You hit your head," Ahsoka replies, stepping closer.

Barriss blinks again slowly. Her vision must be swimming, and she stares towards her. "Ahsoka?"

"Hi."

She rubs the painful spot on her head. "What hit us?"

Ahsoka tries to figure out how to answer that politely. "The planet. We crashed."

"Why did we crash?"

Because you shot me down. Because you were trying to kill me and I was trying to survive, and I don't know if you knew it was me. "Enemy fire."

Barriss swears, a funny word in her own language Ahsoka has never been able to pronounce satisfactorily. "Did the clones get the Seppie wastoids, or are we still in trouble?" 

Seppie? "No," she says. "I think we're safe. What's the last thing you remember?"

"It's a blur." She rubs her head again. "We were on assignment together. You convinced your master to let you come with Master Luminara and me. I don't...." She looks ill again. Concussion, Ahsoka thinks. She's got a bad concussion. And she doesn't remember. Not the bombing, not the murders, not the end of everything we ever knew.

"A few things have happened since," Ahsoka says, resting her arms and coming to Barriss's side. "I can tell you later. Right now, I'm trying to repair one of our ships. You should rest."

Before she can move away, Barriss takes her hand. "I can help. I'll feel better helping." Her gaze is muddled with pain, but clear of madness. It breaks Ahsoka's heart and offers to mend it at the same time.

She turns her hand to clasp against Barriss's, squeezing her fingers. "Rest. I'll have it fixed in a few more hours. We'll get out of here, and everything is going to be all right. I'll make it all right."

Barriss smiles at her with a blameless, innocent faith. "All right. I'll wait here."

Impulsively, Ahsoka kisses her temple, the side that isn't injured, letting herself enjoy the long-forgotten touch and the sweet taste of her skin. There's so much to be said, so much pain between them, and it will cut twice as hard once Barriss regains her memories. For the length of this one soft, stolen moment, though, all of Ahsoka's problems are as small as grains of dust.


End file.
